Canadian Urbanism Uncovered
Read more articles by Dylan Reid
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RPHxA8-aaE[/youtube]
I found this delightful video about crows adapting to an urban environment and even learning to use pedestrian crossings — for their own purposes.
I remember recently telling a friend about how crows are actually very intelligent, and here’s an excellent example.
In the early 2000s, I moved into a new condo building in the Garment District south-west of Queen and Spadina. The area had been mostly an employment area...
By Dylan Reid
EDITOR: Landscape architect and urban designer Walter Kehm worked on the CNE master plans in the late 1960s and recently found these images that included...
By Walter Kehm
7 comments
Very cool.
I’ve seen geese use the pedestrian crossing at Hurontario and Robert Speck in Mississauga a few times. Twice they crossed during the proper light phase, and only once did they cause a motorist to wait for a few seconds for them to clear the intersection.
If you haven’t seen it, a TED talk about the intelligence of crows:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html
Maybe its me. But I’m dumbfounded what certainly (to me) seem the same motorists who drive aggressively at me while I’m lawfully riding a bicycle stop for a family of geese crossing the road.
Crows have learned to use coat hangers as a tool to build their nests. They are the only animal outside of primates to have been observed doing a tool, I believe.
This video is brilliant.
Great post. Very interesting.
It’s a shame though how not alot of other urban animals have this same intelligence.
Really makes you stop and think about how we should learn to live better with our natural environment.
lots of urban animals are clever (eg. raccoons). a growing number of animal species are recognized to show some degree of tool-using ability, but very few are able to make their own tools. the more research that’s conducted into animal (and human) intelligence, the more complex and nuanced the picture seems to be.
Well, that’s amazing. If it’s even real, I mean. Never thought a bird would be that intelligent.